Ken McGuirehttp://kenmc.com
Technology, Video, Gaming, Culture, Digital MediaThu, 08 Oct 2015 21:26:09 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9-RC3-421943321443SHORT: Dreamgun Are Back In Townhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/kenmc/~3/0pEdJ3LyMDo/
http://kenmc.com/2015/10/08/short-dreamgun-are-back-in-town/#respondThu, 08 Oct 2015 21:26:09 +0000http://kenmc.com/?p=2115Irish comedy collcetive Dreamgun are Back In Town for their latest short, only this time they’ve roped in an army of support from other actors and filmmakers plying their trades in Dublin and further afield.

In what could be a Love/Hate parody, Back In Town takes one ‘gangster’ fresh out of prison who’s looking to get back in the game, only there’s some added competition on the streets these days.

Some of the group picked up some nice four star reviews for sketch comedy show Chaos Theory at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, performing almost the entire month of August.

If you’re knocking around Dublin on Wednesday week, you can catch a rehearsed reading of Back To The Future with Dreamgun in the International Bar, kicking off at 6.45pm. Get more info here.

]]>http://kenmc.com/2015/10/08/short-dreamgun-are-back-in-town/feed/02115http://kenmc.com/2015/10/08/short-dreamgun-are-back-in-town/VIDEO: PES 2016 Goals Compilation #1http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/kenmc/~3/ivwB0I46NLE/
http://kenmc.com/2015/10/07/video-pes-2016-goals-compilation-1/#respondWed, 07 Oct 2015 21:29:00 +0000http://kenmc.com/?p=2111While I figure I can do a much better job bringing the footage on to the MacBook, this is a first attempt at a compilation clip using Share Factory on the PlayStation 4.

First impressions, at least based on the options available to you is that there’s potential but it’s certainly limited. Cutting down 4-5 minutes of footage, fixing lengths, removing transitions and adding a stock music track took about 15-20 minutes, plus another few minutes on the upload by adding my YouTube account to my SEN account.

It’s certainly time consuming but that should come down with practice. For the football followers, the above clips are goals from PES 2016’s Master League mode, kicking off with PSG (goals from Ibrahimovic, Cavani and Lavezzi).

Having picked up the PS4 at the end of 2014, it’s taken me until now to start doing something productive with the video footage. There’s hours of FIFA highlights, Assassin’s Creed highlights, high speed chases and stunt sequences in Grand Theft Auto V and more that could do with assembly but it’s a start…

]]>http://kenmc.com/2015/10/07/video-pes-2016-goals-compilation-1/feed/02111http://kenmc.com/2015/10/07/video-pes-2016-goals-compilation-1/Daffney Molloy heads to IndieCorkhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/kenmc/~3/cHoK20HJpJ4/
http://kenmc.com/2015/10/06/daffney-molloy-heads-to-indiecork/#respondTue, 06 Oct 2015 19:28:00 +0000http://kenmc.com/?p=2102Long-time creative collaborators of mine, Mycrofilms have their latest short, Daffney Molloy, heading to IndieCork this weekend as part of the 2015 film festival’s programme of events.

By it’s full title, Daffney Molloy And Other Catastrophes, the show tells the tale of four men getting caught up in stories about a near-mythical girl from their past – apart form one of them.

Those familiar with Devious Theatre’s stage work will know exactly who the ‘smitten’ trio are talking about.

A season for premieres

It’s a bit of a season for premieres for Mycrofilms as Swerve made its first public appearance on the festival circuit this past September, picking up Best Short Film at the 6th Underground Cinema Festival in Dublin. There’s more festival appearances on the way for the crime comedy short. Check out it’s own trailer below.

The Artwork

Here’s a look at the promotional poster I’d put together that’s doing the rounds of Daffney Molloy And Other Catastrophes.

Daffney Molloy and other catasrophes]]>http://kenmc.com/2015/10/06/daffney-molloy-heads-to-indiecork/feed/02102http://kenmc.com/2015/10/06/daffney-molloy-heads-to-indiecork/On rediscovering a love of blogging, writinghttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/kenmc/~3/67ppeAbBUWU/
http://kenmc.com/2015/10/06/on-rediscovering-a-love-of-blogging-writing/#respondTue, 06 Oct 2015 16:14:41 +0000http://kenmc.com/?p=2089It’s been quite a while since I’ve added a blog post to kenmc.com.

What was once my sole outlet from a writing point of view has gathered layers of dust in the past few years as other avenues expanded. Design, radio, food, music, theatre and more all came in to play.

Some continue, some were very much a flash in the pan, an idea that builds up (typically around Christmas), has steam for about a week and then lays dies off.

It’s still gas to see the traffic that comes through the older posts from 2007 and 2008 and keeps things ticking along and as such it’s nice to know there’s still life in the old content.

Working on a new sports project (which will get a formal launch in 2016), my love of long form writing as very much been reignited and with that I’m looking to put kenmc.com back to some form of use mixing current interests in technology, gaming, sport, culture, video, web development, come what may.

I’ve always been a firm believer that content, above all else, is absolute king when it comes to online and so ultimately I’m creating a single outlet for the wide variety of content I’m creating for the web – be it again around video, design, gaming and the likes.

The local elections take place on 23 May 2014 and in an effort to make sense of what’s happening in Kilkenny, I’ve put together kilkennyelections.com to list the candidates running in the new electoral areas in Kilkenny as well as providing some background information on the areas and the elections themselves.

Contributions of information from those running in the local elections will be welcomed.

The 50mm lense is the accompaniment, for now, for gigs locally. Here’s two shots from JP Ryan‘s launch night for Take a Walk With Me at Set Theatre last night, joined later in the show by Clive Barnes.

Work continues on KilkennyMusic.com. Having resurrected the site at the end of January after about 18 months of relative inactivity, this weekend replaced the straight up blog style design used to get things back on track with a more interactive magazine style for the homepage. The Mashable-inspired MashMenu is a handy plugin to use for navigation as well.

Funnily enough, it was around March time each year over the past 4-5 years that the interest in podcasting for me swells up. First with the Playlist Mix, then with trying Indie Switch for a month or two, followed up by last years testing of the waters with the Stereo Mixtape, the format for which will likely be borrowed for the latest round of KilkennyMusic.com podcasts.

The on-air experience gained having presented for KCLR for the past two years should hopefully lend itself both to the lead podcast and similarly with the return of the One Take Sessions as an on-air offering.

From a rooftop on a cold day in Dublin’s city centre to an underwater world, here’s the final artwork for Devious Theatre‘s Some Flood. I’d showcased the teaser version at the end of January featuring photo work from Kasia Kaminska who again provided the full body portraits of actors Eddie Murphy (left) and Kevin Mooney (right) for this version.

If you want to get your toes wet, check out Some Flood performing in Smock Alley, Dublin, as part of Collaborations 2014 on 5 & 7 March, or catch a week’s worth of performances at Cleere’s Theatre, Kilkenny, from 11-15 March including two lunchtime shows on 14 & 15 March.

There’s a flood coming. The first theatre production of 2014 that I’m working on kicks off on 1 February with a work-in-progress showing at Quarter Cork before heading to Smock Alley in March for Collaborations and Cleere’s in Kilkenny a week later.

I’ve got unfinished business with kilkennymusic.com. As an online resource, it was borne out of a passion for music and local music in particular. Kicking things off in 2005, I built the platform to share and promote activities of bands on the ground in Kilkenny. In a pre-Facebook era it was the go-to place for music information, videos, gigs, photos, MP3s and had a bustling forum with membership in four figures.

Expanding from a one man operation to a four man operation, we produced countless videos, podcasts, picked up award nominations, funding, ran countless weekend shows, toured with bands, booked venues, spent way too much on printing, pints and petrol money but had huge craic along the way.

For me, the foot came off the pedal in 2011/12 as the gigs began to slow down and there wasn’t any activity at all in 2013. Local music listings and writings shifted out to the Kilkenny Events Guide, which I kicked off in 2011 and still continues today with new content partners on board for 2014 to help with the workload.

In the time since things slowed down, I’ve started in radio, reconnecting with acts we had put on the stage and reconnecting with things on the ground in terms of music. Plus, after a break that mirrors that of the One Take Sessions, I’m back playing music myself and expect to be gigging somewhat this year.

I’ve felt over the past two years or so that I could be doing the site much more the justice that it deserves, that unfinished business feeling eating away at me. So, I’m dusting things off, rebuilding from the ground up, clean slate and going for broke in 2014.

Myself and herself decided to get married. Granted, we had actually decided a long time ago now, but yesterday was the day for it. And what a day. #alltimewedding.

]]>http://kenmc.com/2014/01/05/got-married/feed/02040http://kenmc.com/2014/01/05/got-married/And Thus Ends 2013http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/kenmc/~3/0MVAEBm0oLQ/
http://kenmc.com/2013/12/31/and-thus-ends-2013/#respondTue, 31 Dec 2013 23:41:48 +0000http://kenmc.com/?p=2030Continue reading "And Thus Ends 2013"]]>There were new contracts. There was a wedding. There was stolen oil. There was a 30th birthday. There was a trip to France. There was a short film made. There was a whole lot of theatre produced. There was a laptop, camera and iPad stolen. There was a laptop and camera replaced. There was the Arts Festival. There was the Fringe Festival. There was Galway, first for theatre, then the stag. There was catching up with friends over dinner. There were new restaurants. There were no penalty points, accidents, or incidents on the road. There wasn’t enough cycling. There was a wedding planned. There was a new band. There were great gigs. There was Springsteen. Fleetwood Mac. There was this and so much more.

Back from a pre-stag stag, if you can call it that, exploring some of the local breweries in Dusseldorf and Cologne including Uerige, Zum Schlussel and what was one of the favourites of the weekend, Schumacher’s, all in Dusseldorf’s old town area.

The keepsakes, and thus allowing you to keep count of the beers consumed, are the beermats themselves, the process being that your beer server will place a tick on your beermat with every beer dropped to your table. I’ll have more of a recap on Any Given Food during the week.

Let’s just say it’s pretty cheap to get a train ticket from Dusseldorf to Koln (just over an hour, depending on what train you take). The morning run was about half the length but Irish Rail prices were anything like German prices for rail travel, I’d be on the train every day of the week.